What’s happening? 

Updated July 5 2022

UVA is transitioning away from the use of Google accounts for email, file sharing, and calendaring for students. Beginning December 2021, all new students will be issued Microsoft Office 365 email and calendar accounts. This transition is intended to allow the university community to interact more effectively by bringing all of UVA onto one platform, Office 365. Explore the Office 365 for Students page from UVA ITS for full details of the transition. Current students with UVA Google accounts will keep those accounts, but no new UVA Google accounts will be created. 

How will this affect me? 

As students transition to use Office 365, instructors may find it useful to do the same, making use of the online, cloud-based services of Office 365 for sharing files and collaborating with students.

As a faculty or staff member, you probably already use Microsoft products like Word, Excel, and Outlook. Some faculty and staff also have UVA-provided Google Drive accounts. If you have one of these accounts, the content you have already created there will remain available. You may request to transition to Office365; learn more on the ITS Office365 transition page or send an email to O365 Transition Help.

If your students have questions, please refer them to the Office365 transition FAQ page.

Do I need to modify my teaching activities?

A&S LDT and other UVA instructional design staff have put together suggested modifications to support teaching & learning activities that previously relied on Google tools. Scroll down to access these activity modifications.

We encourage instructors to consider Microsoft Office 365 tools that provide similar functionality to Google tools see a comparison of Office 365 and Google tools from UVA ITS). During UVA's transition to Office 365, some students will still have UVA Google accounts, while others do not. All students have Office 365 accounts. UVA ITS has helpful suggestions for sharing files with students during this transition.

How do I get support? 

For support in learning new Office365 tools, or to transition your materials from Google Drive to OneDrive, please send an email to O365 Transition Help. For help in modifying teaching activities to use Office365 or other non-Google tools, contact the A&S Learning Design & Technology team for a consultation.

Teaching Activities & Suggested Modifications

I lecture using Google Slides. I like using Google Slides because I can access them easily on my classroom computer.

Modification:

If you have a UVA-provided Google account, the content you have created in (or shared with) that account will remain available to you after the migration of students to Microsoft. If preferred, you may request that your content also be migrated to OneDrive by contacting the ITS O365 transition consultant. Note that migrated content may require reformatting, and slideshows that contain embedded images/videos/audio are unlikely to retain the embedded content appropriately if migrated.

To create new slideshows, consider using Microsoft PowerPoint and saving your slides to OneDrive, which you can access online. Documents saved in OneDrive to be accessed from any computer. Learn more about using OneDrive on the ITS website.

My students complete in-class group writing activities using Google Docs. They need an online shared writing space, and I need to be able to view it (and collect the document, if I want to).

Modification:

Create a Microsoft Word document online, save it in OneDrive, and share the link you’re your students. Learn more about sharing files in Microsoft 365. Students will use online Word to collaborate synchronously on the document. Based on our testing, some users may notice occasional delays in viewing other users’ edits; this may be improved by having all users access the document online (not via desktop Microsoft Word). Access Office365 to try using Word online.

Though anyone can create and share a document with other UVA users, we recommend that you, the instructor, create and share documents you wish to keep, or for which you need to control/modify access. 

Modification:

Create a Microsoft Teams Class for your course. A Class Team contains a OneNote Class Notebook that can support a variety of collaborative activities. A Class Notebook also offers private sections accessible to only an individual student and the instructor. Additionally, student groups can create “Collaboration Spaces” for file sharing, and instructors can create “Channels” for groups to meet and collaborate. Learn more about Microsoft Teams on the ITS website.

Students do a lot of peer editing in my course. 

Modification: 

Students can create their document or project using an Office365 online tool such as Microsoft Word, and save the document to OneDrive. They then share the document with their partner(s) and/or with the instructor. Learn more about sharing files in Microsoft 365. Word offers extensive commenting features for peer review, including tracking changes and assigning comments to specific individuals for further review. 

My students submit short writing passages, exit tickets, etc at the end of class. I use these to take attendance and/or assign participation points.

Modification:

If all students are using the same shared document, the instructor can create a Word document, save it to OneDrive, and share the link to it with students to allow them to write in it. Learn more about sharing files in Microsoft 365. Adjust sharing permissions later, as needed, by accessing the file from your OneDrive. 

Note: We recommend users access Word documents and other files from the online version of Microsoft Word. If you download a document to a computer, be sure to turn on ‘AutoSave’ to avoid creating a separate version of the file on your desktop.

Modification: 

Create a Discussions Forum or an Assignment in your UVACanvas site and allow students to complete the assigned writing or exit ticket in that space. Learn more about Discussions and Assignments on UVACanvas.

My students collaborate all semester on large group projects. They need a shared place to organize their files and work collaboratively. They usually email me a link to the project, so I can review and grade it.

Modification:

Students can create and share group projects using online Office365 tools, which offer similar functionality to Google tools (see a comparison of Office 365 and Google tools from UVA ITS). Students can submit a link to the group project as usual (that is, via email, UVACanvasAssignments, or similar). Students can learn more about the Office365 tools available to them on the ITS website.

Modification:

Students can create a Team in Microsoft Teams. One student creates the Team and adds their group members to it. Alternatively, the instructor can create a class Team for the course and, within it, create a “Channel” for each small group. The instructor is then able to access students’ work directly in the Team site. Learn more about Microsoft Teams on the ITS website.

My students are working with partners external to UVA and need to share files and communicate with those partners.

Modification: 

Students can create a Team in Microsoft Teams and make their external partners “guests” on the team. In their Team, they can create and collaborate on documents, hold live online meetings, and use a text-based chat. Learn more about Microsoft Teams and setting up a Guest on a Team.

Modification: 

Students can create online files using Office365 tools (such as Word) and share them with external colleagues. Learn more about sharing files in Microsoft 365. However, please note some limitations: 

• To give access to non-UVA users, you will need to share the file or folder via the “Specific People” option and enter the external partner’s email address, rather than sharing to “Anyone with the link”. Access provided via the “Anyone with the link” option will expire in 7 days.

• External users are required to verify their email with Microsoft to gain access; users should check their spam folder for this verification email.

I keep my grades in a Google Sheet spreadsheet.

Modification: 

As UVA transitions away from Google accounts for faculty, staff, and students, Google Sheets may not meet the requirements to securely manage sensitive data like course grades. Grades should not be kept in personal Google Drive accounts either.

Consider maintaining grades in an Excel spreadsheet that you save to OneDrive to allow access from on and off Grounds. Learn more about OneDrive from UVA ITS. Alternatively, consider using the UVACanvas Grades, which has flexible, responsive options for recording, sharing, and calculating course grades. Get personal help setting up your Gradebook from UVACanvas Support.